Microsoft

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3 out of 5.0,
Reviewed
Oct 17, 2016

Product(s):
Case management solutions

challenging

Overall Comment

Needs Assessment

What one piece of advice would you give other prospective customers?

take time to understand your needs.
figure out what proceses you need to change or adopt

Microsoft Case Management for a Federal/DoD Entity

Overall Comment

Microsoft was selected to support development of our case management system due to their experience in the field, existing platforms (CRM), and availability of both Microsoft and third-party IT personnel to provide long-term support for the system. Microsoft introduced us to new ways of supporting our customers and the requirements collection process; this was done through development "sprints" where the solution was developed and provided along the way so that course correction could be taken to ensure the correct end product. Additionally, rather than just focusing on the original set of requirements, information was collected through "user stories" that allowed our customers and stakeholders to explain not just the what, but the how regarding their business process, workflows, and expected results. This enabled Microsoft to provide recommendations that not only met the technical requirements, but facilitated improvements to business processes rather than automating bad processes.

What one piece of advice would you give other prospective customers?

A lot of people consider Microsoft more costly than other vendors and solutions; I would recommend that prospective customers weigh the risks of working with third-party vendors, and the effeciencies you get from having an industry leader develop capabilities. You may get "sticker shock" at first, but Microsft's engineers and specialists are incredibly experienced and reduce the time to deliver a completed solution.

What do you like most about the product or service?

We were extremely satisfied with getting a case management system that met our requirements with initial operating capability in 6 months, rather than years as you would normally expect from a federal/DoD project.

What do you dislike most about the product?

N/A. The product and services were as stated above, top notch.

What one thing do you wish the vendor did differently?

Our experience with Microsoft was top notch; their process was well refined, and their deliverables were timely, so there really isn't much we could have asked for.

If you could start over, what would your organization do differently?

If we could have done anything differently, it would have been to do a better job on the front-end of refining our agency's business processes before engaging Microsoft. Additionally, we could have done a better job of standing our ground from the IT side, and pressed harder for our customer stakeholders to adopt better processes that would have helped reduce system complexity, development time, time to field the solution, and ultimately reduced overall up front and long term cost.
Initially, we made a decision to build our case management solution using CRM as the foundation; looking back on it, we would probably have Microsoft provide a custom web front-end which would have had improved portability both for customers, as well as in the cloud.